


Tell them I'm sorry

by EWM



Series: Febuwhump (First one ever!!) [21]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Being Tortured, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt, Hurt Angus Macgyver (Macgyver 2016), Hurt No Comfort, Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Jack trying to protect Mac, Mac sacrificing himself, Protective Jack Dalton (MacGyver 2016), Torture, Whump, Worried Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), being helpless, trapped in cells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:40:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29724306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EWM/pseuds/EWM
Summary: Mac is forced to listen helpless as Jack is beaten in the cell next to him.The prompt was tortureThe rest of the chapters for this story are as follows: (Obeying Commands/The faces comes to visit/I have to keep going/ A purple ankle and a floating brain/ A wet towel and chips/ Blood and broken table legs)
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)
Series: Febuwhump (First one ever!!) [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2150052
Comments: 11
Kudos: 14
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Tell them I'm sorry

Mac kept back into the land of living slowly. He didn’t his open his eyes at first (partly because he had a black eye on one side). But his brain activated, and he groaned. He heard the echo of his own voice inside the room and his heart sank. He was alone, Jack was gone. Had Lord killed him? Had everything with Jack even been real? Had it all been some twisted fantasy meant to torment him? Some drug induced trick by Lord to teach him the rules yet again?? The pain was certainly real, every bit of it. He’d been left lying on his back and every time he moved even a little he wanted to cry out. Okay his body was telling him, moving was most definitely not an option. So, he opted for opening his eyes, he needn’t have bothered. Wherever they were keeping him was so dark he could barely make out the lines at the edge of the cell. Despite the darkness, Mac felt a bell of recognition and a sick feeling. Lord had kept him in rooms like this for days. Images of cattle prods and chains, a long knife came into his head. And now…now things would be worse. He was trapped again and Jack…Jack had been caught in the crossfire because he hadn’t obeyed fast enough. Against his better judgement he decided to try and get up off his back, a strike of agony went through him. His ankle still throbbed, and it felt more twisted than before. He ran his fingers along it and registered its bizarre shape.

Mac shuffled backwards until he found a wall and lent his head back against it. He did his best to calm himself and recall something of the last few hours or maybe days? It was hard to tell in pitch black. He could just about remember being in the van, realising Jack was next to him and an overwhelming relief that he was still breathing. Had they been put on a boat after that? They’d been rocking, a kind of flowing sensation, although that might have been the head trauma. He supposed that if they had been gone long, his foot would be in an even more disgusting state that it already was. His mind went back to Dalton. He had to find out if Jack was still alive, if he could get Dalton away from all this and safe, well…Mac couldn’t think much beyond that at this point. That was all that mattered, Jack had been dragged into this mess and he had to get him out. And his fate…well that was something separate. Jack was the absolute priority. The universe might have been listening on Mac’s thoughts at this point because as he lay there, he heard a strange banging that sounded a lot like fists slamming against a wall.

“Jack is that you??” Mac called shifting positions

“Kid! Mac, you in there? Are you alright??” Jack responded

“I’ve had better days!”

“I know the feeling, are you hurt? Have Lords goons come for you?”

“No…have they done something to you?”

“Nothing I can’t handle. Mac, you need to think about getting us out here. Work out how.”

“What? I couldn’t get myself out last time, how am I supposed to do it, in the dark with a foot bent in the wrong direction?”

“Because you’re you Mac, you always find a way. You say didn’t get yourself out last time, but the reason I found you is because you scratched a message in the wall. Do you remember that?”

“I…yes…Lord beat me for two days, but he never managed to get it out of me”

“You will find a way. Don’t worry about me…Mac…just keep yourself alive.”

Jack was cut off at this point, Mac called his name. But he heard other people come into Dalton’s cell, there were muffled curses and a series of cracks and thuds. Mac started to scream, to plead, to take him instead, but he got no response. He battered his hands against the walls until they started to bruise. He followed the sound as Jack was dragged out. Mac struggled to his feet and managed to find the outlines of the door and tried to open it. There was no door handle, but he scratched the edges and pushed it, all it did was rattle.

As he took rage out on the door he twisted his leg around so he fell backwards onto the metal floor, he screamed and cursed. He was so angry at…at everything, at Lord, at himself at the whole universe for putting him in this position. There was no obvious way out of this, Jack’s faith in him was endearing, but he didn’t have any idea of how to get them out. He also feared Dalton might die before he came up with something. Mac sat in the middle of the floor and tried to gather his thoughts, there must be something in here that he could use to get them out. The room was metal, no windows obviously, but there must be some grate or some small space otherwise the sound wouldn’t be able to travel through it and he wouldn’t be able to speak to Jack. The door rattled when he tried to open it, maybe some part if was loose?

As he skimmed the room (his eyes had adjusted to the dark) Mac found his head was hurting and the couldn’t focus. Every time he tried to work out some kind of plan, his head seemed to short-circuit. Eventually he found his eyelids dropping, he rubbed them determined to stay awake, but it was no use, he collapsed on the floor and passed out. The noise of Jack’s body being dragged back into the cell next to him woke him up.

Dalton tapped the side of his cell. He feared if he banged it as hard as he had done early he might break his fingers

“Mac, you in there?” he rasped

Mac woke up immediately.

“Jack, are you okay?”

“I’m alright. You, they’ve not come for you yet?”

“No…no, no one at all. What are Lord’s men doing to you?”

“I told you nothing I can’t deal with. You come up with anything yet?”

“I…um. Maybe, the door is lose, so maybe I can pry something off it to make a key. There’s got to be some kind of gap, a grate or a hole linking between the cells. I don’t think we’d be able to hear each other so well. Can you help me look??”

“That’s good Mac…that’s good Mac. You just keep thinking”

Dalton fell back on the floor and tried to take a few deep breaths, they came out as a series of scratching noise and Mac’s heart sank.

“What is Lord doing to you?”

“Nothing Mac…nothing”  
  


“What’s he asking you?”

‘What?”

“He always wants to know something right, when he did something to me he’d always ask me a question or something”

“What did he ask you about?”

“Nothing…I mean not about the foundation or government exactly. The questions were personal, bizarre even. What my worst fear was? Why was alone…it varied…”

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing initially….but after a while…I felt like I didn’t have control over my mouth anymore and I just started spilling secrets”

“What secrets?”

“I didn’t tell them anything about the Phoenix…but I started mumbling about…being alone…feeling like a failure…never been enough…it just went on…”

“And…come on Mac”

“And…he would tell me…I don’t know like….it’s hazy. That if I joined him, that all that could go away, that I’d be wanted…be part of a family….be protected”

“But Mac… you have a family, we love you. We want you to be safe…”

“Part of me does know that Jack, but I feel like I keep failing you…or … it’s never enough…and something about the simplicity of Lord’s answers…and just the agony of it all…some part of me wanted the pain to stop so badly…”

“Mac I’m so sorry, hoss, we should have gotten to you soon.”

“Jack it’s not your fault.”

“I’m supposed to protect you.”

A horrible noise interrupted them again. And then Lord’s voice came out of nowhere

“Hello MacGyver. I’m glad that you’re moving around and up about…maybe that’s the wrong word. How is that foot of yours?”

“What the hell do you want Lord?”

“Less of that MacGyver. You are one of mine, remember”

“I’m not yours, I never was.”

When Jack heard MacGyver’s defiance, he smiled. He spat a little bit of blood onto the floor. Lord was flanked by two men and they began to kick him repeatedly. His breathing got more laboured and harsher, he fought back despite the dilapidated state he was in. He broke both their noses and two fingers on one of them

“You are MacGyver, you became one of my soldiers. And I will remind you again and again, that are you and this wreck of a man…”

Lord grabbed Jack and put him into a headlock. Dalton fought back grasping at his throat,

“is nothing but a fake who will use you.”

“No! Lord ! stop!!!”

“I will not MacGyver. I will remind you every day until you remember who you are that you belong to me.”

Lord put a kick into Jack after each word and Mac was helpless to stop him. He could hear the crunches as Lord broke bones and the occasional shout of protest from Jack, but he couldn’t do anything. He smacked his against the wall but remained silent. Lord kept this trick up for three days demanding Mac’s loyalty the same offer on repeat. Jack tried his best in between the sessions to encourage Mac, but his ability to actually talk reduced too, on the third day Lord throttled Jack again, tighter determined to kill him. All MacGyver could hear was Jack’s pained breathing and the strange scratches as he tried to claw at Lord to stop him.

That was when Mac capitulated, he knew it was stupid, that Lord would screw him over again, that he was perhaps going to go deeper down the rabbit hole. However, he had no choice, he couldn’t listen to it anymore. Lord was gleeful that the plan had worked, although on one level he disappointed that MacGyver had given in so easily (at least in his eyes). The goons left Jack in a sea of blood passed out (he had not heard Mac’s defeat and giving in). Mac slid down the wall after Lord defeated him and waited for whatever would come next. The door was thrown up and the light flooded in and Lord was standing over him

“My boy, you’ve made a wise decision.”

“What would you like me to do Lord?”

“Nothing for now. Now you’ve agreed…you’ll be protected.”

“I’ve got one request.”

“What is it?”

“I want to see Jack once before I depart and I want your word you’ll let him go unharmed.”

“That’s two requests.”

Lord lent down and slapped Mac across the face. MacGyver rubbed his now sore cheek, but looked up defiant. Lord was fascinated by this new attitude and was already thinking about how he would break him of it

“Alright MacGyver, you’ve got my word that my guards will not hurt him again and you may see him.”

The two soldiers that had previously been in the background MacGyver lifted him to his feet and he limped forward to the door and into the light. MacGyver took in his surroundings, he and Jack had been held in two metal boxes, but they themselves had been forced into what looked like a rock face. He could see the light that had semi blinded him was artifical. He lent against the door as the soreness in his foot and the rest of his leg intensified. Lord lent him a hand and Mac did his best to repress a shudder when he felt those fingers touch him. It was only a few minutes to the door to Jack’s cell, but it took forever. Sweat poured down Mac’s face as he moved forward and Lord wouldn’t let go of him. Finally the door got opened and there Jack was, Mac shuffled inside after Lord released him.

Dalton was passed out, there was blood, some dried, some still wet across the walls. His face was bruised with speckles of blue and purple all over it. Mac knelt down next to him with difficulty and murmured his name, even in his dazed state Jack registered Mac’s presence.

“Mac! You’re…you’re okay…how did you get out?”

“Jack listen to me. I’m going with Lord. I’ve got to, it’s where I belong. I’m sorry, that’s who I am. I’m truly sorry..”

“Mac don’t do this to me…no”

Dalton managed to sit himself up, Mac threw his arms around Jack and murmured a last message in his ear. Lord had watched all this from the door and decided he had had enough, the guards came forward and pulled him up and dragged him away

“Jack…I know what I’m doing. The men are going to leave you alone, get back to Phoenix and tell them I’m sorry.”

Then the door slammed.

**Author's Note:**

> I guess the logic I was going for on this was that while obviously Mac is in a bad way here, the real torture for him is hearing it. 
> 
> Listening to Jack be tormented in a variety of ways and being trapped and not able to help him
> 
> His mind fills in the blanks of what he can't see
> 
> What do you reckon?


End file.
